GUWAHATI: Assam MP from Kaliabor Gaurav Gogoi has sought the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s immediate intervention in the alleged abduction case of five youths from Arunachal Pradesh by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

He has asked the defence minister to take strong actions.

Gogoi said, “I have written to the defence minister about the case of five missing Indians from Arunachal Pradesh. We want the families of these poor individuals in the Northeast to be reunited. India has to put pressure.”

The alleged abduction of the five youths from hill state’s Upper Subansiri district has triggered tension across the Indo-China borders of northeast India.  

Earlier on Monday, a day after Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports (Independent Charge) Kiren Rijiju said that the Indian Army has already sent a hotline message to the counterpart PLA establishment at the border point in Arunachal Pradesh, China state-affiliated media Global Times quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian saying, “China has never recognized so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, which is China’s south Tibet region, and we have no details to release yet about the question on Indian army sending a message to PLA about five missing Indians in the region.”

On Tuesday, the tension between the two Asian giants escalated when the PLA claimed that Indian troops had fired warning shots, prompting it to “take counter-measures to stabilise the situation on the ground” at Pangong Tso in Ladakh.

However, the Indian Army said at no stage had it “transgressed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) or resorted to use of any aggressive means, including firing”.